Overview
- Peru’s Culture Ministry and the Caral Archaeological Zone team announced Thursday the identification at Áspero in Supe Puerto of an oval, two-level platform dated to about 2000 BCE and interpreted as an observatory.
- The structure features a central huanca, a upright stone used to read sun shadows to tell time, with layouts consistent with tracking solar and lunar cycles.
- Excavation in Sector J1 recorded four construction phases, ending with the space rebuilt as housing, which points to a loss of specialized roles at the site.
- Researchers say specialists logged the Sun, Moon, and stars to foresee climate shifts and marine cycles that guided fishing, shellfish gathering, and deliveries to inland settlements.
- A multidisciplinary team is studying orientations, layers, and recovered materials for publication and exhibits, highlighting how this coastal Caral port near pyramids joined observation with ritual and exchange.